but while preparing israeli troops are gathering on the border. even as egypt works to broker a deal, former british prime minister tony blair traveled to tel aviv to sit down with israeli president perez. >> i hope that over the coming days we can achieve cessation on a basis that is sustainable. >> and joining me now from gaza, nbc news foreign correspondent ayman. what's the latest on what's happening in cairo? >> good afternoon, tamron. well egyptian officials have met with the leaders of the two major palestinian factions engaged in this military operation with israel. they're trying to get them to commit to a cessation of hostility force a period of 48 hours to allow for a longer truce to go into effect. the palestinians feel they have the upper hand here, and they are saying they will not stop their attacks into southern

israel so long as israel maintains a siege on gaza. they want it lifted and they want guaranteed backed by the international community that israel will no longer engage and target and kill senior leaders of the palestinian factions here in gaza. they want all of these demands guaranteed by the international community. for its part israel wants to approach it from a different angle. they want a complete cessation of hostilities for 38 hours for so followed by a -- other concerns they have. the challenge for egypt is to try and close that gap as quickly as possible because essentially everyone here feels that they're running out of time. you have the israelis amassed on the border and palestinian factions still firing rockets and caught in the middle are the 19.6 million palestinians living in gaza subject to the attacks from the israeli side. this is the challenge egyptians negotiate with the u.n. officials today including the secretary-general as well as turkey's prime minister and

regional leaders participating in these talks. tamron. >> we got information in from the white house that following his dinner tonight, president barack obama called president morsi of egypt. he spoke with the israeli prime minister netanyahu of israel getting an update on the situation as it stands in more detail from the white house indicating president obama called morsi. the two leaders discussed wayed to de-escalate the situation in gaza, and the president underscored the necessity of hamas ending fire into israel. that's the latest information. thank you. as i mentioned, more than 100 rockets have been fired from gaza into southern israel. you heard ayman refer to that happening today alone. many rockets fired into israel have been intercepted by the country's missile defense system. it is known as the iron dome. nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk joins me from tel aviv. this missile defense that we talk so much about, stephanie, is significant in many ways. it kept down the loss of life, which certainly would have escalated this crisis far faster than what we're seeing.

>> reporter: yeah. it gives them some breathing room. if there was a rocket that landed here in tel aviv that killed a number of people or killed even more people down south besides the three that were killed in one attack, you'd be in a different situation. there would be more public pressure. right now you have tens of thousands troops waiting for the order to go in, and israel's in a position where they could call that order, depending on public pressure and where they see this offensive going. the difficulty going into gaza as apresident obama talked about over the weekend would be an increase in casualties. troops potentially being killed. right now what we're hearing is israeli officials will be meeting tonight including prime minister netanyahu along with his defense minister and his foreign minister to discuss possible cease-fire options. what they're going to insist upon is that the palestinians stop firing rockets into israel immediately, and they have said

that they will not stop their offensive until that happens. tamron. >> thank you very much. again, more insight to what the president discussed with these two leaders. he called on president morsi of egypt as well as prime minister netanyahu, and in both calls the president expressed regret for the loss of israeli and palestinian civilian lives and has agreed to stay in close touch with both leaders. this is new information come inning a minute ago from the white house. now to the politics playing out over the aaattack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. senate leaders say they will now investigate the talking points given to u.n. ambassador susan rice and why they did not reflect cia findings shortly after the attack that was a terrorist-related incident. on "meet the press" senate intelligence committee chairperson dianne feinstein defended the house against allegations it changed the script for plital purposes ahead of the election. >> this whole process is going to be checked out. we're going to find out who made

changes in the original statement. until we do, i really think it's unwarranted to make accusations. >> and joining me now is rachel smolk and michael smirkonish and jimmy williams. ray she will, let me start off with you. i want to play a couple of other clips from "meet the press." let me play lindsey graham, because what we heard from senator feinstein was a response to some of the comments made particularly by mr. graha miker. >> would this white house mislead people about american security events? i think they might. when the bin laden raid occurred they leaked every detail. we heard details about classified information. to make this president look good, so if they would leak classified information to make

him look good, would they withhold information to prevent him from looking bad? >> it went to this so-called deputies committees populated by appointees from the administration. that's where the narrative changed. we do know that the intelligence community as they presented it was accurate. >> the allegation that the white house changed those talking points, that is false. only one thing was changed, and i've checked into this and i believe it to be absolute fact. that was the word "consulate" was changed to "mission." >> rachel, you heard a snippet of what was playing out on these sunday morning programs. what is your take? can they get to a point of conclusion, or as senator feinstein said any kind of fact with these allegations that maybe this was all for political gain? >> the testimony of general petraeus on friday behind closed doors seems to have raised more questions about this. certainly it did not put an end to anything. now we're hearing these

questions about the talking points. general petraeus said the cia knew right away it was a terrorist attack, and, in fact, the original version of the talking points made reference to al qaeda and terrorism. that did not emerge in the final set of talking points, so there's questions about why was that taken out, and who took it out? was it taken out to protect classified sources? in other words, it was still early oin the investigation, it was perhaps a tenuous link in the beginning. there may have been some concern over protecting classified information. we don't know. we don't have those answers. the white house, you heard snore feinstein saying they only made a small factual change to the description of the consulate, calling it a mission instead. so if they didn't do that, there are a lot of questions about who did it and why. we don't see anything close to an end on this and it's a very partisan matter. >> absolutely. michael, are weapon not only far from the end, we are as far away from clarity as we were the day

after this incident happened. what are people saying to you as they call in? obviously this, again, has become one of those hot topics that it depends on your perspective and perhaps even depends on who you voted for in the election. >> i think very much it depends on who you voted for in the election, because those who won't let it go, i tend to believe, are the partisans that never voted for barack obama to begin with. my own perspective for what it's worth is i find the conspiracy theories to be illogical. i keep asking to what end would the administration or someone within the administration want to manipulate the narrative? what would be the political upside in keeping this under wraps from the american people? tamron, i don't see it. why would someone be motivated to keep from september 11th through election day this quote-unquote secret? it would not bode so poorly for the president if, in fact, it was terror as compared to a spontaneous reaction. remember, the original september 11, i think, was significantly

responsible for the re-election of george w. bush. so that's where it breaks down in my mind. >> that's interesting. i want to read something from "the washington post," michael. it says if some or all of these top national security figures ask/or they are deputies were vofld it's not accurate to say they acted alone but never believable on something this significant the white house would not have been in the center of the action. i guess what's amazing to me in so many respects, all the speculation from senator rogers having to be corrected by feinstein. if there's a viable and credible hearing going on, we understand lawmakers love to talk and many love to get in front of the camera. the reality is so much speculation in an almost incendiary form that is stunning in some ways, michael. >> you saw elected officials and hold press briefings. i say why did they close the

door? now we have to pick and choose who we believe in terms of those who come out and confront the media. so that's not a healthy process. why not open the door and let everybody take a look at what's going on? one other quick observation. it seems to me that ambassador rice was parroting the intelligence briefings that she was being provided, and i think that's why governor romney dropped this issue in the final debate. bob schieffer's first question was about libya, and he wanted nothing to do with it. why? he was getting the same briefings she was. >> speaking of ambassador rice, let me bring you in. maureen dowd is coming down on susan rice. >> she wanted to prove she had the gravitas for the job and help out the white house. she was focused on the pevens, not the content said one administration official. that's a quote in maureen's

piece there. what do you make, again, of the focus on susan rice and what some perceive as a lack of focus on what former cia director david petraeus said or didn't say? i think peter king came out and gently worded it for peter king that the story was a bit different. >> well, i mean, i think you find a scapegoat here. she's front and center, but at the same time, i mean, there's all this incendiary talk about this, about ambassador rice, who is eminently qualified by the way. the senate did vote to confirm her four years ago. so we know that she's qualified. the question is, what's different now about susan rice than before? i don't think there is much of it. someone needs a scapegoat. both, the administration from a political perspective and in the congress. the congress does, in fact, have the right to investigate this. they should, as a former senate staffer, i think they should investigate it. if they come up with something of wrongdoing, so be it.

if they don't, it's like a whitewater hearing all over again. ambassador rice is very qualified for what she's doing. if president obama puts her up, the republicans have to filibuster her nomination. >> there are few people who would say, don't investigate. if there are concerns regarding security before the incident took place, of course, the families deserve clarity. the country deserves clarity. we want to know that our diplomats and the people on the front line in these countries for us are protected appropriately. there are quite legitimate questions, which is why it's so baffling for senator mike rogers and lindsey graham to throw out these political grenades, almost testing to see if they can explode. >> the reason that you're finding lindsey graham do that is because he's now in cycle, which means he's up for re-election. notice that prior to a month ago, if you will, lindsey graham

wasn't that much in the press on these issues. he was very quiet, and he was out advocating for governor romney to be president of the united states. all of a sudden, they find an opening. guess what? lindsey graham is utterly terrified as the senior senator from alabama against someone. i'm not surprised by something like that. the question is if they want tovp an investigation, vote to have one. let's have the investigation, and shut the hell up until the investigation is final and done. then if there's a problem, say there's a problem. >> quickly, rachel, can they get to the bottom of who changed the talking points? is that something -- again, i was watching "morning joe," and there was a difference of opinion if you can pinpoint that kind of information. >> i think they'll keep asking questions until they do get an answer. i think it is likely that more information will emerge about this. you know, the controversy over susan rice is so particularly

interesting because the charges that are flying around have gotten so personal. we heard the president call out senators mccain and graham by name at the news conference last week and saying if you want to come after someone, come after me. they answered by saying, all right, mr. president, we'll come after you. >> thank you very much, rachel. michael it's a great pleasure and jimmy as well. if you don't see you before thanksgiving, happy thanksgiving to you and your families. >> you, too. take care. >> as president obama makes that historic trip overseas, the fiscal cliff negotiations not far from his mind. >> a prayer, perhaps a wing and prayer are up next. i'll talk with john yar mouth about new comments from a republican congressman who says minority leader nancy pelosi is not on the same page as the president. plus, developing news. attorneys for hostess are in

court right now to shut down the company. you can join our conversation on twitter. you can find us at @tamronhall and @newsnation. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. in what world do potatoes, bacon and cheese add up to 100 calories? your world. ♪ [ whispers ] real bacon... creamy cheese... 100 calories... [ chef ] ma'am [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

we're working on this budget. we're going need ate lot of prayer on that. >> that was president obama, of course, talking this weekend about efforts to avert that so-called fiscal cliff. the president spoke while touring a monastery in thailand with a buddhist monk, later explaining he believes in prayer and if a buddhist monk is wishing him well, he can take

whatever good vibes he can. white house and congressional negotiators planned to hold talks all week while the president is in asia and congress is in recess. new proposals are then expected to be discussed when president obama and congressional leaders meet again next week and after congress returns. got that? that's your calendar. right now house democratic leader nancy pelosi insists there's no deal without tax hikes on the wealthy, while republican leaders stand firm against raising any tax rates. >> is that something that's acceptable? >> no. >> not at all, no way? >> nochlt. the president made it clear in his campaign that there are not enough -- what you just described is a formula and a blueprint for hampering our future. >> tax increases to chase ever-higher spending is a fool's errand. what we need to do is have that balanced approach which is increasing revenues through a process of tax reform and then spending reductions.

>> and joining me now live is democratic congressman john yarmouth of kentucky, a member of the house budget committee. thank you for your time. >> absolutely. >> you heard those two countering opinions on where this is going. i want to throw this in the mix. a short time ago, a couple hours ago house majority whip kevin mccarthy said that nancy pelosi and the president are not on the same page. he referred to even the dollar amount of what is considered wealthy referring to the may proposal from pelosi at a million dollars or more as opposed to 250,000 we're talking about right now. is there divide? >> i think that right now we see a lot of positioning for the negotiations, but i've been one who has been in line with speaker pelosi or leader pelosi on that for a long time. that there's nothing sacrosakt about the $250,000 number. the white house is very, very strict about that. i think there are a lot of ways that we could negotiate somewhere between that number

and incomes over a million dollars a year. i offered an amendment in the budget committee just to raise the tax rates back to clinton era rate on incomes over a million dollars. every republican voted against them. we'd love to talk about another number if the republicans were willing to talk about any number. >> that is an interesting point there. to further point out in this interview, mr. mccarthy says that pelosi, his words, keeps changing the game plan. what do you make of this assertion that the ball keeps moving as negotiations have just started? >> well, again, i think we're seeing a lot of posturing now. one of the things that i keep asking of the republicans is, where have they ever taken one step toward us? one inch? they have never been willing to take a step. they say we need to compromise, find middle ground and all that sweet talk. they never move out of their end zone. this is what's been so frustrating about the negotiations.

the president put forth a number of proposals last year, two and a half cuts to a dollar in revenues. four dollars to one dollar. they weren't willing to come one dollar, one dime. that's frustrating. the game keeps changes, but i don't think from our side. >> the plan to attack the immediate issue regarding taxes that go up, and then focus on entitlements and some of the other concessions that may come aahead here? you hear or we hear two lines of thought. people who want to rush this in which seems impossible before the end of the year or take it piecemeal together for something perhaps larger? >> well, i think, tamron, there are so many elements or issues that have to be resolved. i doubt we can get them done by the end of the year. the senate passed a resolution to the tax issue and we have to vote on that.

if speaker boehner can deliver 25, 30 votes, we'd supply the rest of them. there's an easy and quick answer to that. the rest of it, the amt, the farm bill, there are many tax issues besides just the income tax rate we have to resolve, too. i worry about the estate tax done and other ones done if we can, and then push the other matters to next year. >> thank you so much for your time. we greatly appreciate it. talk with you soon, hopefully. thank you. >> thank you. >> the first read team reports there's a sense in the white house they need a cease-fire negotiation in the middle east asap. it could come down to a test of the new egyptian government. nbc's deputy political editor mark murray will join us live. plus, new jersey governor chris christie, you might say he stole the show on "snl." >> you have been wearing that fleece a lot. >> yaeshgs it's basically fused to my skin at this point. >> we'll have more.

it's one of the things we thought you should know.

welcome back. president obama now on the last leg of his unprecedented trip to southeast asia. the president went to the east asia summit after visiting thailand and myanmar, where he became the first u.s. president to visit the once isolated nation. and this was the scene as the president's motorcade drove through the streets of myanmar. he received a warm welcome, many people lining the streets to get a glimpse and others waved american flags. he met with opposition leader aung san suu kyi who spent several years under house arrest under the rule of myanmar's

military. he praised the nation's transition to democracy but told leaders their struggles is not yet over. >> this is not an endorsement of the burmese government. this is an acknowledgment that there is a process under way inside that country that even a year and a half, two years ago nobody foresaw. >> the president's historic four-day trip to southeast asia sends tomorrow. still ahead, senator john mccain's suggestion for negotiating peace in the middle east. >> i wish i'd find someone as high ranking frankly as former president bill clinton to go and be the negotiator. >> we'll get the latest on the crisis in the middle east with "time" magazine's jim frederick. plus, it's one of the to hestor that gave a lighter moment to

somedays and hopefully it will give a job to others. attorneys go to bankruptcy court with the details on what's happening there. check out the "news nation" tumblr page. you'll find behind the scenes pictures at newsnation.tumblr.com. [ male announcer ] you like who you are... and you learned something along the way. this is the age of knowing what you're made of. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision.

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small business saturday is a day to show our support. a day to shop at stores owned by our friends and neighbors. and do our part for the businesses that do so much for us. on november 24th, let's get out and shop small. we have developing news to report. in the last 30 minutes the white house indicated the president called israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and egypt's morsi and called for an end to the violence. as egyptian negotiators work to broker a deal, they get help from u.n. secretary-general moon. he traveled from cairo to israel tomorrow to meet with netanyahu and then to the west bank to meet with abbas. bringing the end to a crisis, a high stakes situation for egypt and the u.n. in fighting is the most intense

the middle east has seen. jim frederick is joining us. as i mentioned, the latest development. the president, while he is in asia, making these important phone calls. obviously, wanting the same goal that everyone does at this point. >> yeah. i think the interesting thing so far is how removed the united states has been from the situation, from the negotiations going on in egypt and so people are starting to ask, is this a problem that the united states has to come in and solve? obama has hands-off. he's traveling throughout asia. the united states' voice here has been largely silent. i think part of that is purposeful, and i think part of that is leading from behind some of the strategies the united states has tried to pioneer over the past couple of years, and also i think it's a realization that the united states might not have as much leverage in the region or countries around the region it had a couple of years before the arab spring. >> isn't there great leverage with egypt, you have senator

graham and others sends out a warning that money is tied to the progress that egypt tries to facilitate here? >> yes, i think that it is still a declared treaty nation. there's a great deal of aid, and at the same time morsi is clear for lack of a better phrase he refuses to be the united states lapd lapdog. he has much more afin knit in the hamas mission than mubarak did, who saw hamas as a threat to his own rule. to say moem hamed morsecy will do whatever the united states says because aid is tied to it is naive. >> let's play the latest comments saturday from benjamin netanyahu. let's play it. >> i'm glad to see most of the governments of the world don't fall into the false symmetry of equates the terrorist aggressors with their civilian victims. of course, israel will continue

to exercise this prudence and self-restraint while defending our citizens against terrorism. >> interesting choice of words, most of the governments of the world. obviously, we've talked about this, the pressure around netanyahu giving the arab spring and the dynamic with egypt alone. >> yeah. i mean, i think part of the problem is here among the negotiations, there's two parties that see themselves -- the treaty has broken down. hamas will not stop the rockets until the air strikes will end, and israel says tlt not end until you stop up firing the rockets. you have a classic stalemate here nein terms of why these negotiations around going anywhere. >> we're hearing pour specifics, for example, end of the blockade. might that be a positive sign in that there's something on the table if israel agrees, and at this point they have a two-pronged plan or desire to happen. the first one is having the

missiles to stop, which is obvious. >> the ending of the blockade might be a near term solution. from the strategic standpoint there's a long-term problem where loosening the blockade now gets it to stop now. the smuggling and importation of weapons does it kick the can down the road when hostilities flare again, gaza has more missiles than before. >> one of the articles in "the daily beast" says the first thing to understand about the war is hamas forced israel's hand. is that anywhere close to being accurate at that time? do you believe that netanyahu feels his hand has been forced somehow here? >> i'd like to walk back athat time line a little more to determine exactly when we're talking about. the thing that kicked off this most recent spate of hostilities was the assassination of the military head of hamas. i think in terms of forcing israel's hand in terms of not stopping the volley of rockets, that could be true.

that's probably true right now. you saw the leader of hamas say there is no treaty on the books, nothing is go to happen until israel stops the air strikes now, because they've got a real public relations problem on their hands. these air strikes are now killing a lot of civilians including children, and unfortunately in the media-saturated world we live in, you're having loss of life is positively impacting hamas's mission at this point. it's terrible, and it's horrible that civilian casualties can actually reinforce the media cause of that particular group, but it is helping them in the short term. >> jim thank you very much. our nbc news first read team writing today about the israel/gaza conflict saying, quote, politically it could become just one giant hot potato for the president. there's a sense in the white house that they need to get some sort of cease-fire ngtded asap. arizona senator john mccain volunteered suggestions sunday on face the nation.

>> i'd find one even as high ranking frankly as former president bill clinton to go and be the negotiator. i know he'd hate me for saying that, but we need a person of enormous prestige and influence to have these parties sit down together as an honest broker. >> joining me now is mark murray. mark, what are your thoughts on what john mccain he floated out there? >> well, you know, bill clinton was a troubleshooter for barack obama during the presidential contest, and he certainly knows his dealings in that really troubling, very difficult terrain of middle east politics. i would say he might be able to help out and negotiate a cease-fire, but actually completely solving the whole middle east process in conflict there with something he was unable to do as president. it's been a thorny issue for lots of presidents, and you understand why that world is so volatile and has repercussions throughout the entire globe. >> mark, back to first read and

some of the assessment. obviously, the asap notion is an obvious one. we know that the white house and president talking with both morsi and netanyahu today. you heard -- i don't know it if you heard, you heard jim frederick's assessment that the white house has been really hands-off here. what's behind that strategy? >> it shows you how tricky of a terrain it is right now for the white house always to be leaning going guard. jim frederick mentioned that leading from behind, which was coined in a new yorker piece about the obama administration's policy towards libya. that is that given what happened in the bush years and certainly with iraq, with united states seeming to dictate a lot of foreign policy in the middle east and elsewhere, the white house has kind of seen particularly with a lot of changes in the middle east, new leadership in egypt, the arab spring taking rein, that it's better than the united states always going up front and dictating what other countries

need to do is trying to finesse things and work behind the scenes to make things work. we'll see if that is able to work going on right now in gaza. >> mark, thank you very much. and both sides have aggressively tried to control the narrative using twitter, blogs, and even youtube. when the israeli military began in offensive last week, it immediately posted this video on youtube of the air strike that killed that top hamas leader as well as a block post explaining why he was targeted. this prompted "forbes" to write this may be the first war declared via twitter. palestinian activists have been actively posting pictures of the dead and wounded. "newsweek" and "the daily beast" correspondent is covering the ongoing social media war here. mike, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> let's first talk about and you mentioned the "forbes" article in your piece, the first war declared via twitter. we've seen this many times, a green revolution, especially the

impact twitter can have to get word out about what's going on. >> i think what you're seeing here that's interesting is a state, israel, do it's own very active twitter campaigns, and they've devoted a lot of resources, i think, to making sure that their social media footprint on this conflict and on foreign relations generally is pretty strong. >> just some of the messages going out. israel defense forces tweeted a warning to militants saying we recommend that no hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their face above grounds in these days. some of the information that's been going out via twitter from israel has been seen negatively by those outside the region. what's your perspective of how it's being used? go ahead? >> i think a message like that, first of all, is clearly more tailors to the international community because it's tweeted in english. it was pretty randomly mocked. my favorite comment on twitter was, won't it make it harder to

kill them? i think they're taking pains to show they're trying to avoid civilian casualties, which is what they do for a long time. at the same time i think they're also trying to scare hamas into backing down. i don't think israel wants a ground war on this. they want the ruockets to stop. >> the response -- we said at the bottom of our screen, real life twitter wars. we usually talk about twitter wars, but when you have hamas responding to a specific message on twitter from israel, i mean, how do we even process that? >> i think you're right. it's easy to not take it seriously. i think when you look at the other side of this conflict or twitter war, don't look at has hamas. their social media presence is negligible and awkward. the palestinian activists are really the other front in this.

you know, they're taking it and making a serious effort to document civilian casualties and to upload photos and videos on twitter and on facebook and on youtu youtube. they're doing a good job getting their message across. when you talk to them, they think they're winning that battle. >> when you mention getting their message across in a good job, is it changing minds and informing people or just having it out there in this universe that so many much us exist in with social media? >> i think talking to them, you know, there's a sense that their message never gets out. if they feel ignored and now people pay attention to videos and photos, they see that as a win. it's a good point you just made. i spoke to a gaza-based journalist who said it's a problem for me. i spent half my time trying to track down the different pieces of information on twitter from the activists. it's false and you can waste effort that way. it's good and bad for people trying to convey a more

conventional and serious message. >> thank you for your time. we're following developing news. attorneys for hostess wrapped up a bankruptcy hearing to begin the process of shutting down the iconic company. we'll get you the latest on this one. first, the big wow moment from the american music aawards. if you thought m.c. harmer had lost his moves with age -- he's only 50, but think again. everyone is talking about last night's performance when hammer hit the stage with psy. check it out. ♪ ♪ ♪ you are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪ ♪ you make me happy [ female announcer ] choose the same brand your mom trusted for you. children's tylenol, the #1 brand of pain and fever relief recommended by pediatricians and used by moms decade after decade.

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i heard you guys can ship ground for less than the ups store. that's right. i've learned the only way to get a holiday deal is to camp out. you know we've been open all night. is this a trick to get my spot? [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. save on ground shipping at fedex office. i just finished a bowl of your new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. here's some developing news out of new york where the company that makes twinkies, wonder bread and dingdongs was

in bankruptcy court. they're asking a judge for permission to liquidate assets and close down operations and lay off most of its 18,000 employees. prospective buyers are showing interest in some of those brands, but it could be a while before the items are back on shelves. nbc's mara shav camp powe is joining me now. >> some of the issues at play here, the union wants to make sure the plan is fair to them and their employees. the department of justice has intervened to make sure that some of the executives aren't being paid too big of bonuses on their way out. it could take about six months to a year to liquidate all the assets, that includes everything from manufacturing equipment to the brands ifrts. there's hope for fans of hostess that the popular brands like twinkies and the cupcakes get picked up by other companies so they will be manufactured and available. >> but that won't necessarily guarantee that the people who are in line to lose their jobs will have a place to work? >> it doesn't guarantee those

jobs are saved. if another company buys the brand, they can absorb it into the existing infrastructure. the hope from the union and employees' standpoint is someone will step in and pick up the whole operation so people can keep jobs. >> right now the judge is strongly encouraging parties to aagree to mediation tomorrow? >> yes. they want to set up a plan to shut down. there's no question hostess is going to shut down. how are they going to do it and deal with final issues, the liquidation of the company and move forward? tamron, i brought you something at the outlet today. this is worth a lot of money on ebay right now. >> really? >> it's flooded with hostess products for a while. >> people holding onto them? >> people want them because they stopped production and tlifrys last week. this is my he gift to you. >> that was on the "today" show this morning. matt lauer referred to the emotional part of the story. obviously, nothing is worse than someone losing their job, but it's also a part of their life

cycle as children who refer and remember this, especially people our age. >> yes. i bought a lot of them, because the thought of a life without hostess is -- it hurts, because that's a part of my childhood. >> absolutely. we reminisce on those things. thank you very much. we'll update you on the latest on this hostess situation. coming up, marco rubio's visit to iowa fueling speculation about 2016. it is just one of the things we thought you should know. plus, black friday is starting earlier than ever this year. some stores open at 8:00 p.m. on thanksgiving day. guess what? hundreds of thousands of employees are now protesting having to work on their holiday. it is our "news nation" gut check. want to try to crack it? yeah, that's the way to do it! now we need a little bit more... [ male announcer ] at humana, we understand the value of quality time and personal attention. which is why we are proud to partner with health care professionals who understand the difference

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there's a lot going on today. here's things we thought you should know. republican senator marco rubio from florida raised a lot of

eyebrows with a weekdend visit to iowa. the official reason for visit? governor terry branstad's bifrtd day speech? they thought his speech sounded like a campaign style speech fueling speculation about his future. well, how you wind down from a presidential race? tmz reports governor romney and his wife took in a showing of "breaking down part 2" over the weekend at a theater in california near his home. romney admitted he's a fan of the "twilight" series. a high profile appearance this weekend by new jersey governor chris christie on "saturday night live." he donned his familiar fleece jacket he's been wearing so often. >> i'd like to give a special thanks to my lovely wife who put up with a husband who smelled like a wet fleece for the past three weeks. >> you've been wearing that a lot. >> it's basically fused to my

skin at this point. i'm going to die in this fleece. >> he should totally host the show he did a great job. time for "news nation" gut check. more retailers are looking to get a jump on the holiday shopping season by opening doors on thanksgiving day. toys a toy ss r us, walmart and others. some employees are fighting back and sish lates signed petitions asking companies to hold off on thanksgiving hours. one target employee wroetd, thanksgiving is one of the three days us retail workers get off a year, a day most all of us spend with family. we only get to see on that day. that petition has gathered more than 350,000 supporters. in a statement on its website target says the opening time is carefully evaluated with guests and team members in mind. their opening time this year reflects the feedback they say they heard from guests. many p prefer to shop following

family gatherings rather than in the early hours of the morning. what does your gut tell you about it? do you support the employees protesting working on thanksgiving? they say they want to be with their families. go to facebook.com/newsnation to cast your vote. "the cycle" is up next. sometimes what we suffer from is bigger than we think ... like the flu. with aches, fever and chills- the flu's a really big deal. so why treat it like it's a little cold?

there's something that works differently than over-the-counter remedies. prescription tamiflu attacks the flu virus at its source. so don't wait. call your doctor right away. tamiflu is prescription medicine for treating the flu in adults and children one year and older whose flu symptoms started within the last two days. before taking tamiflu tell your doctor if you're pregnant, nursing. have serious health conditions, or take other medicines. if you develop an allergic reaction, a severe rash, or signs of unusual behavior, stop taking tamiflu and call your doctor immediately. children and adolescents in particular may be at an increased risk of seizures, confusion or abnormal behavior. the most common side effects are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. the flu comes on fast, so ask your doctor about tamiflu. prescription for flu.

it's monld, and you're in "the cycle." i'm toure. i wonder when you put up a new countdown clock. >> a political chess game in the middle east with innocent civilians as the pawns. today israel and the palestinians and the rest of the world await checkmate. >> a dire report about global climate change. which of us are least prepared to weather it.krystal ball. the dingdong may be dead, and there might be a twinkle